by Pino Cazzaniga

The conflict began 59 years ago by Kim Il-sung cost the lives of more than 3 million people. The current tensions are a concern. The peninsula is among the most militarized areas in the world. The work of the Church for reconciliation.

Seoul (AsiaNews) - On June 25 in many places in  South Korea groups of veterans, relatives of victims and citizens from every walk gathered to commemorate the anniversary of the "Korean War" (1950-53). As that day dawned fifty-nine years ago by order of the Communist dictator Kim Il-sung tens of thousands of troops from the North’s army, crossed the Han River, to start a fratricidal war which ended July 27th 1953, not with a peace treaty but with a simple armistice signed by North Korea, China and the supreme commander of the United Nations army on behalf of South Korea.

That horrible war, unleashed by ideological differences, reduced the Peninsula to a pile of rubble and, according to the research of historians, cost the lives of over three and a half million people: 970,000 South Koreans, 1,700,000 North Koreans, 900,000 Chinese troops and 150,000 soldiers, mostly Americans, from the armed forces of the United Nations.

South Korean Prime Minister Han Sung-soo, in commemorative speech delivered in a square in the centre of Seoul, after having expressed "respect and gratitude for those who sacrificed their lives in the conflict," said that "the South and the international community can help the North if it abandons its nuclear program as soon as possible ", making clear that the government will face with severity" any power” that threatens the security of the nation.

The allusion to recent bellicose threats from the Pyongyang regime was evident. Almost as a confirmation of the danger, that same day, Rodong Shinmun, a newspaper of the North Korean Workers Party, said North Korea could launch a nuclear attack against the South.  In reality the editorial was an angry comment on the meeting between South Korean President Lee Myung-bak and U.S. President, which took place June 16th at the White House. On that occasion, Barack Obama assured Lee an "enlarged deterrence" against the North.

The "forgotten war"

That same day, Jeffrey Miller, correspondent of The Korea Times, in an essay entitled "How I discovered the forgotten war," described the American soldiers who fought in that conflict as "ordinary men called upon to do extraordinary things who believed in what they did to save South Korea”.   Recently, some surviving veterans, visiting as tourists have felt deep satisfaction in witnessing how the country has become the rich nation and free for which they had fought.

But the commemoration was not as universally felt in the country concerned. “Here, Miller points out, there is a dichotomy between the old and the new generations. While older people vividly remember the horror, the suffering and casualties of that war, many young people do not share those memories and only look to the future”.

An explanation of this absurd ignorance is found in the infiltration tactics that Kim Il-sung, first, and then his son Kim Jong-il, adopted following the strategy pursued by the Vietnamese Ho Chi Min in his conquest of the southern part of Vietnam, which involved massive guerrilla and terrorist propaganda. But after the publication of declassified documents from the former Soviet Union, not even South Korea activists from the extreme left can deny that the invasion of South Korea was the initiative of the North.

A war that continues 

Since 1994, the governments in Washington and Seoul have been working to transform the armistice into a permanent peace treaty and since 2002, on the initiative of China, “six-party” talks (China, North and South Korea, United States, Japan and Russia) have been ongoing to induce Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program in exchange for massive economic aid. In reality the talks are "one against five"; in short the government of North Korea, on the one hand and those of the other five on the other.

Pyongyang has rendered these efforts vain; from the outset it has employed delaying tactics and recently heavy threats: May 25th it proceeded with its second underground nuclear explosion and has already announced the launch of a Taepong long-range missile in the direction of Hawaii. A certain attitude of intransigence of the government in Seoul is the pretext.

The "forgotten war" is not yet over.  In fact the two halves of the peninsula are among the most aggressive in the world. North Korea has an army of 1,100,000 troops, deployed for the most part, in the vicinity of the 38mo parallel. Immediately north of the demilitarized zone it has fielded artillery of 1100 howitzers with a range of 60 kilometres. Seoul, with its 11 million inhabitants, is located only 40 kilometres from the North’s line of fire!

The South’s Chief of Staff is not going to watch passively. He has updated the defence program in order to respond immediately and with great rapidity to any attack from the North. Although it has numerically decreased its army (from 47 to 28 divisions: 520,000 troops) it has greatly enhanced the effectiveness of mechanized divisions with high-tech vehicles and tactical aviation support.

Spirit of reconciliation key to the solution

"If you want peace, prepare war" said the ancient Romans. Six decades of growing antagonism between north and south, which led to the precipice of an irreparable tragedy, denounces the fallacy of this old principle.

The solution to the problem does not lie in the balance of power but in a conciliation of spirit. For at least three decades, the Catholic Church in the south of the peninsula is working at all levels to disseminate and nurture this spirit of reconciliation with capillary catecheses, also aimed at promoting reflection on the responsibilities among of the brethren of the South and organizing campaigns of massive unconditional economic aid for the brethren of the north.

 

 

• korea
• north
• south
• war
• armstice
• aid
• reconcilliation
• army
• six
• party
• talks